Adding flight track to video with Mavic 3 Enterprise
With the new DJI Mavic 3 Enterprise series it became very easy to add the flight track to the video on a screen which is useful for surveys for instance. I put up… Continue reading
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Deep learning for animal detection in drone images with ConservationAI
Together with several collaborators the ConservationAI team is using deep learning to detect animals in video footage from drones. See these links for an example for the Arabian Oryx and spider monkeys.
Grey heron monitoring in the UK
Megan Melia,a MSc student at Liverpool John Moores University used drones with RGB cameras to count the nests of grey herons in the UK. Here you can see some of the footage that was taken for her research.
Publications page
With the increase in the use of drones for conservation and environmental research we thought it would be useful to share our list of papers on these topics. Therefore we just added a… Continue reading
Identifying illegal logging in drone imagery using Google Earth Engine
A quick demonstration of on-the-fly land-cover classification of drone-derived orthomosaics using Google Earth Engine for the purpose of delineating illegally logged areas.
How to find a downed drone in a rainforest?
For Graham Usher of the SOCP, he flew another drone to locate it! (See if you find it in this image!)
ConservationDrones Flight School
The ConservationDrones team is planning to run occasional, centralized training workshops on the use of conservation drones — our very own flight school! Visit this page for more information, and to register your interest.
Conservation Drones featured in Conservation Biology Textbook
The latest edition of Primack’s Essentials of Conservation Biology is out. And it contains a feature on Conservation Drones! We are a step closer to our vision of making conservation drones a part… Continue reading
Conservation drones for seabird monitoring
A research team led by Jarrod Hodgson and Rohan Clarke from Monash University is partnering with ConservationDrones to use UAVs for seabird monitoring. Jarrod and Rohan have just returned from a successful trip to… Continue reading
FFI Conservation Drone in ULU MASEN
ConservationDrones.org is proud to help kick-start Fauna and Flora International‘s conservation drone program in Aceh.
Behind-the-scenes look at a three-day drone building party
The four directors of ConservationDrones.org physically met for the first time the weekend before Christmas 2013 to build 10 conservation drones ‘Caipy’ for WWF. We spent two days to complete the builds and… Continue reading
That time National Geographic followed ConservationDrones to the field
(Click here for the National Geographic article accompanying the video clip)
ConservationDrones.org is among 100 of the world’s most inspiring social tech ventures
ConservationDrones is proud to be among the Nominet Trust 100 of the world’s most inspiring social innovations using digital technology, together with other social ventures such as BitTorrent, Raspberry Pi, Arduino, Github, Ushahidi, Kickstarter,… Continue reading
Second anti-poaching video drone for Nepal
ConservationDrones.org‘s latest UAVs were recently deployed in Chitwan National Park in Nepal. We featured one of them, the Caipy video drone, in our last post (850 mm wingspan). Here is its big brother,… Continue reading
New Anti-Poaching Video Surveillance Drones for Nepal
ConservationDrones.org has been working closely with WWF Nepal for the past year or so, supported by the WWF AREAS Programme. One of our long-term goals is to reduce training time for new drone… Continue reading
Conservation Drones over Barro Colorado Island, Panama
Lian Pin Koh (ConservationDrones.org) and Brenden Duffy (FlightRiot.com) went on a trip to Barro Colorado Island, Panama, upon the invitation of Dr. Helene Muller-Landau from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. We brought two units of… Continue reading
Girls, boys and their toys!
Simon Wunderlin, the Technical Director of ConservationDrones.org, has been testing several new airframes for the next generation of our drones. This work is funded by WWF Netherlands/International. We are developing this new system… Continue reading
DEVELOPING A NEW CONSERVATION DRONE
ConservationDrones.org recently received a small grant from WWF to develop a rugged drone for use in difficult terrain and landing conditions. This is just a teaser of one of the airframes in testing… Continue reading
Conservation Drones used in fight against destruction of elephant habitats in Sumatra
Fast forward to 5:50 for part on drone use.
Marine Conservation Drones
ConservationDrones.org went to Glover’s Reef in Belize upon the invitation of the Belize Fisheries Department and Wildlife Conservation Society. We explored the use of unmanned aerial vehicles for supporting enforcement of marine conservation… Continue reading
Eye in the sky quadcopter drone in Aras Napal, Sumatra, Indonesia
*Unedited raw video footage See: http://ConservationDrones.org
Drone footage of fire aftermath in peatlands of Tripa, Sumatra, Indonesia
*Unedited raw video footage This video was from a short drone flight last year (2012) in the peatlands of Tripa. It shows burnt areas cleared for new oil palm plantations. This drone mission… Continue reading
Drone flight over orangutan re-introduction site in Jantho, Aceh
*Unedited raw video footage Drone operator: Graham Usher from Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme Drone: Raptor with APM Read about the efforts of the SOCP at re-introducing orangutans: http://www.orangutan.com/from-the-forest-jantho-aceh-besar-sumatra-2011/
Droning in Cambodia: Training Birdlife, ELIE, CI & WCS
Simon Wunderli from ResearchDrones and Serge Wich from ConservationDrones were in Cambodia in April 2013 for BirdLife, Elephants Livelihood Environment Initiative (ELIE), Conservation International (CI) and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Featuring the ResearchDrones… Continue reading
3D Model of Oil Palm Landscape created with Drone Imagery
3D model and fly-through created by Serge Wich using PIX4D and ESRI 3D ArcScene. Drone Imagery from Keeyen Pang. This is a 3D model animation of an oil palm mosaic in Sabah. A… Continue reading
Tiger Drone Test Flight Video
Airframe: Finwing Universeye Penguin Autopilot: APM 2.5+ with Power module GPS: 3DR LEA 6 Telemetry: 3DR 915 Mhz Motor: Finwing stock M2220 1350kv Propeller: Master Airscrew 3-bladed 9 x 7 Pusher ESC: Finwing… Continue reading
Princeton Tiger Drone!
Lian Pin has just moved to New Jersey to begin his year-long sabbatical at Princeton University, his alma mater. He has just finished building the first Conservation Drone in America, which is called… Continue reading
Oil Palm Landscape Mapped by Drone
Keeyen (our Asia team member) used his Skywalker 1900 equipped with an APM 2 and Canon S100 to map an oil palm estate owned by a friend. Keeyen’s Skywalker was able to track… Continue reading
A Story About Madagascar From Aboard A Drone
This is a 15-minute short film about Zuzana’s journey across parts of Madagascar with a drone, shining a spotlight on environmental and livelihood issues on the red island. It is a fascinating and… Continue reading
Madagascar Drone Missions
Madagascar Team Leader and Drone operator: Zuzana Burivalova (PhD candidate) Applied Ecology & Conservation Lab, ETH Zurich With support from: Dr Martin Bauert, ZOO Zurich Wildlife Conservation Society Madagascar Madagascar National Parks Tom… Continue reading
Video diary: Drone training in Odzala, Congo
0:36 Mission planning 1:32 Takeoff 1:46 On-board cam takeoff 2:08 low flyby 2:53 Landing 3:47 Auto take off from platform 4:40 Spotting fires 5:40 Landing 6:17 Debriefing 6:47 Elephant pictures Video editing by Simon Wunderli (ResearchDrones.com)
Thanks for supporting Conservation Drones in 2012!
2012 Annual Report for ConservationDrones.org Some excerpts: ConservationDrones.org had 49,000 views in 2012. The busiest day of the year was May 29th with 4,416 views. Our visitors came from 158 countries in all! Most visitors came… Continue reading
Night Vision Conservation Drones
Over the last week, ResearchDrones.com and ConservationDrones.org conducted a series of tests of low cost thermal imaging cameras. Models tested: 1. FLIR HS-324 Patrol 19mm Thermal camera (320 x 240 res) (link) 2. NEC… Continue reading
Launch of new ResearchDrones/ConservationDrones in Odzala National Park, Congo
After traveling thousands of miles by air, a 16-h “road” trip and surviving 3 flat tires, Remo Peduzzi and Simon Wunderli from ResearchDrones personally brought our brand new WHITE Maja drones to conservation… Continue reading
Conservation Drone in Loango, Gabon
Sander van Andel (Max Planck Institute) flies Conservation Drone Maja in Loango National Park, Gabon, capturing turtle nests on the beach (first ever coastal mission!), forest buffaloes and chimpanzee nests (with a marker). Loangodrone flight overview… Continue reading
Flight Animation with synchronized video
If you are using a GoPro HD camera, or any non-GPS enabled video camera, you can use a new web service, GPS4Sport.com, which allows for the synchronization of your APM log (in GPX format)… Continue reading
Video of drone flight over Sepilok forest for tree ecology
Video of conservation drone flight over Sepilok by ecologist, Chris Kettle. This is a Conservation Drone 1.0 (Bixler prototype) carrying a Canon IXUS 220 camera (video mode)
How to land a Conservation Drone in small spaces
Updates from our Conservation Drones Asia Team (Keeyen and his son, and Wee Siong) who is helping ecologist Chris Kettle to conduct drone surveys over forests in Sepilok, Sabah (Borneo). (Link to Keeyen’s… Continue reading
Fly Through 3D Digital Forest
3D forest model of a transect in Sumatra, Indonesia, based on aerial images acquired by Conservation Drones. Data processing by Dronemapper.com. Animation by Ervine Lin of ETH Future Cities Laboratory (futurecities.ethz.ch).
Discussion Forum and Seminars
Forum Upon requests from some colleagues and friends, we have now put up a Forum page for general discussions on hardware, software, and other topics concerning Conservation Drones. I hope all of you… Continue reading
Conservation Drones MAJA Edition
Over the last few weeks, ConservationDrones.org has been collaborating with Remo Peduzzi and Simon Wunderlin (from ResearchDrones LLC) to develop the next generation of drones for conservation applications. Remo and Simon bring with… Continue reading
Collage of Orangutan Nests
Collage of Orangutan Nests, a set on Flickr. This is a photo-collage of ~35 orangutan nests in SE Asian rain forests taken by cameras on board Conservation Drones. We are collaborating with colleagues… Continue reading
Conservation Drones teams up with DroneMapper!
Yes! We have teamed up with DroneMapper.com. DroneMapper operates an innovative SaaS system which allows drone pilots to manage their flight data, build beautiful geo-referenced orthomosaic maps, DEMs and 3D models from aerial… Continue reading
High resolution composite image of Zurich Zoo’s new elephant enclosure under construction
This is an 18-photo composite image of Zurich Zoo’s new elephant enclosure. Aerial photographs were taken by a camera on board an autonomous Conservation Drone 2.0 that was flying at a speed of… Continue reading
Next Gen Conservation Drone under testing
We are experimenting with several different airframes for the next fleet of Conservation Drones. One of these models is the X5 which we mentioned earlier. Another promising candidate is the new Condor Skywalker 1880. The main… Continue reading
Drone Parachute Deployment
We finally were able to test our homemade parachute (40″ diameter). Initial tests suggest that a deployment altitude of about 10m above ground should be about just right to minimize drift. Our next… Continue reading
Sneak Peek: Conservation Drone 3.0
The X5 Wing
University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
Training Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz and the MEME team from the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus (Management & Ecology of Malaysian Elephants). Emma Stokes and Tony Lynam from WCS dropped by for a peek as… Continue reading
Two new camera placements
We tried these two new camera placement options under a wing that worked very well in the field. Again, the iSPONGE served its purpose in dampening motor vibration.
Orangutan nest spotting with Conservation Drone, success!
Two orangutan nests spotted by a Conservation Drone flying at 100m above ground.
Conservation ArduCopter Test Flight
Finally found time and some good weather to test fly the latest addition to our Conservation Drones fleet — ArduCopter. This test flight was fully autonomous, including takeoff and landing. Details of test… Continue reading
Training our first collaborators
Serge and Lian Pin training Alex and Fiona from the Ugalla Primate Project to operate a Conservation Drone bound for Tanzania to survey chimps!
Our Conservation Fleet!
Serge and I spent the last few days in Asten, the Netherlands, building up our Conservation fleet. These will be going to the Jane Goodall Institute, University of Nottingham Malaysia, and WWF Nepal,… Continue reading
Our Mission
The mission of this website is to share our knowledge for building low-cost Conservation Drones to help conservation workers and researchers in developing countries do their jobs a lot more effectively and cost… Continue reading
What are Conservation Drones?
Conservation Drones are inexpensive, autonomous and operator-friendly unmanned aerial vehicles for surveying and mapping forests and biodiversity. Non-technical operators can program each mission by defining waypoints along a flight path using an open-source… Continue reading